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African Religious Movements: The Worst or the Best of All Possible Microcosms
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 August 2021
Extract
The millenarian tone of the rubric “Africa 2000” under which we develop these essays in prognostication reminds us that there are always religious implications in divining the future. We are also reminded of the millenarian expectations which have been planted in Africa or have risen out of the African soil. What part will these expectations claim on the future, and upon the fullness of time, play in African fruition? Bartnett lists over 6,000 independent churches and sects in sub-Saharan Africa—surely a conservative figure and biased toward movements of marked Christian influence—which suggests the vitality of church founding as a cultural phenomenon.
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- Copyright © African Studies Association 1978
References
Notes
1. Barret, D. B., Schism and Renewal in Africa (Nairobi, 1968)Google Scholar.
2. J. W. Fernandez, “African Religious Movements: Types and Dynamics,” Journal of Modern African Studies, 2 (1964).
3. Fernandez, J. W., Microcosmogeny and Modernization, Occasional papers, McGill University Centre for Developing Areas, 1969 Google Scholar.
4. For the distinction between infrastructure and superstructure as it applies to religious movements, see William M. J. van Binsbergen’s interesting paper “Religious Innovation and Political Conflict in Zambia,” in van Binsbergen, W. and Buijtenhuis, R., eds., Religious Innovation in Modern Africa (Leiden, 1976)Google Scholar.
5. In the work, for example, of Jan Vansina in Central Africa.